Admissions Requirements

Must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Admission:

Office of Graduate Admission
University of San Diego
5998 Alcalá Park
San Diego, CA 92110-2492
grads@sandiego.edu

Official E-Transcripts are acceptable only if emailed to grads@sandiego.edu.

Official transcripts from the university where you earned your bachelor’s degree are required at the time of application. Applicants must have a minimum cumulative Grade Point Average of 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale) in all undergraduate coursework.

If you earned a degree from an institution outside the United States, you are required to submit an official international transcript evaluation (also called a foreign credential evaluation) as part of your application. Please note that the evaluation must be a course-by-course evaluation. You must order your official course-by-course evaluation from one of the following evaluation services.

• World Education Services, Inc. (WES)
• Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (ECE)
• International Education Research Foundation, Inc. (IERF)
• Josef Silny & Associates, Inc. (JSA)
• SpanTran: The Evaluation Company (SpanTran)
• Foreign Academic Credential Service (FACS)

Please be sure to carefully read the application checklist for international students found on the University of San Diego's Graduate Admission website.

Submit the online portion of your application and pay the application fee.

Your resumé or CV should be a summary of your qualifications and transferable skills related to the program. You are encouraged to highlight your professional accomplishments and relevant experiences, including volunteer experiences. In addition, you can submit a cover letter with your resume to provide context to your relevant experiences and share their connection to the program.

Two letters of recommendation are required at the time of application. If possible, one letter should come from a professor who can speak to your academic strengths, while the other should come from an employer or professional mentor.

Letters should not be submitted by a family member or friend. The letters of recommendation should share how they know you, how long they’ve known you, and how they are familiar with your work. We encourage recommenders to share specific anecdotes that help explain how they think you will be successful in a program and in your career.

The total written statement should be a maximum of 500 words.

Include a brief narrative describing yourself, your career goals, and the importance of graduate study in marriage and family therapy at this point in your life. Include relevant volunteer or professional experiences that you feel have prepared you for this profession.

You may discuss influences on your intellectual development, educational and cultural opportunities (or lack of them) that have been available to you, and the ways in which these experiences have affected you. This should not be a recording of facts already listed on the application; it should give the Admissions Committee a better sense of who you are and why you are applying to the program.

If you are in a graduate program at another university, please explain why you wish to leave.

After an initial review of applications to the Marital and Family Therapy program, the most qualified candidates will be invited to USD for a group interview with the MFT faculty.